Written Testimony of Trent Bush, Founder & Co-CEO, ARTILECT — Beyond the Trailhead (Field Hearing, May 30, 2025)

Summary

Written testimony of Trent Bush, Founder & Co-CEO of ARTILECT, for a field hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship titled Beyond the Trailhead: Supporting Outdoor Recreation in an Uncertain Economy, held May 30, 2025 at the History Colorado Center in Denver, Colorado. Addressed to Senator Hickenlooper, the testimony recounts the witness's career in Colorado's outdoor industry and past attempts to manufacture performance apparel in the United States. It states that ARTILECT makes merino wool apparel in Vietnam because a domestic supply chain does not exist, and that the company cannot comply with the Berry Amendment. The testimony describes the effect of recent U.S. tariff policies on small wholesale-focused brands and retail partners, and urges Congress to reconsider those policies.

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Written Testimony of Trent Bush
Founder & Co-CEO, ARTILECT

Field Hearing: “Beyond the Trailhead: Supporting Outdoor Recreation in an Uncertain Economy”
U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
May 30, 2025 | History Colorado Center | Denver, Colorado


Thank you Senator Hickenlooper and distinguished guests-

My name is Trent Bush, and my life has revolved around Colorado’s outdoor industry since child-
hood. Growing up, my dad was one of the first employees at Boulder-based Frostline Kits, an inno-
vative outdoor brand that started in the 60’s.

Frostline enabled countless American families, from diverse economic backgrounds, to enjoy the
outdoors affordably, making their jackets, sleeping bags, tents, and packs at home, since back
then, most American households had sewing machines and knew how to use them.
Unfortunately, market conditions dramatically shifted by the early 80s, and Frostline, along with
other Boulder-based innovators like Holubar, Gerry, and Altra, became obsolete as competitors
leveraged overseas manufacturing to deliver finished products at significantly lower costs – With
no sewing necessary.

In the mid 80’s I began own my career at Wave Rave, a small snowboard shop in Boulder. Although
we initially produced our own jackets and pants locally, our limitations started to become apparent
when competing brands began to source in their products overseas, bringing a new level of quality
and performance that we couldn’t achieve.

At Boulder High in 1989, my brother, a friend, and I decided to launch our own brand, Twist, deter-
mined to produce domestically, because even though it was harder, that's what we believed in. We
soon outgrew Colorado's limited capabilities and moved to the Bay Area, aiming to utilize factories
abandoned by the large American outdoor brands who were off-shoring.

But at just a few million dollars in sales, Twist lacked the scale to sustain these factories, and they
quickly shuttered, forcing us to try to move our goods to Los Angeles factories, which were more
accustomed to producing Halloween costumes and denim jeans rather than technical outerwear.

Without the necessary specialized equipment or sewers available, our products faced severe quali-
ty issues—The waterproof coating failed on our US-sourced fabrics, the snaps fell off, and seams
leaked. Even back then, the know-how had already moved on.

Ultimately, survival forced us to move our manufacturing overseas, but it was too little too late, and
we ended up losing everything.

That was way back in the 90’s, and US-based performance apparel manufacturing capabilities
have only decreased from there.

I know this is true, because after Twist, the past 30 years of my career have revolved around senior
roles in design and development for global performance brands like Burton, Spyder, Oakley, Out-
door Research, Mountain Hardwear, Black Diamond Equipment, and my recent startup, ARTILECT.
At each of these brands, we made sincere attempts to reshore partial production, but those have
ended in costly failures, with only basic products like t-shirts and socks being successful.

       ARTILECT Studio • 1909 Broadway #100 Boulder CO 80302 • TrentBush@ARTILECTperformance.com
Written Testimony of Trent Bush
Founder & Co-CEO, ARTILECT

Field Hearing: “Beyond the Trailhead: Supporting Outdoor Recreation in an Uncertain Economy”
U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
May 30, 2025 | History Colorado Center | Denver, Colorado


Today at ARTILECT, we create innovative, high-performance merino wool apparel in Vietnam,
because domestic production remains impossible due to the lack of merino sheep, specialized
yarns, equipment, and infrastructure.

Because of this, and even with interest from the U.S. military, we can't comply with the Berry
Amendment because the necessary domestic supply chain simply doesn't exist, leaving our brand
without a valuable business opportunity, and our military is left with sub-standard equipment.

While the post-covid outdoor market has already been harder than any I’ve ever faced, our entire
industry faces a new, unprecedented crisis amplified by recent U.S. tariff policies.

For a small wholesale-focused brand like ours, these tariffs dramatically inflate landed product
costs, forcing us to either raise retail prices—or accept significantly diminished margins– Or most
likely both.

Our retail partners can’t absorb these price increases without reducing their orders significantly,
and their customer’s unable to pay more, endangering both their own businesses and ours.

Additionally, these tariffs severely undermine ongoing industry efforts towards greater equity and
inclusion, making outdoor participation much more expensive and illusive.

Even if Tuesday’s ruling against the tariffs stands, the uncertainty of U.S. trade policies have also
sparked anti-American sentiment in our foreign markets, causing outright rejection of American
brands and severely damaging our global competitiveness.

This is all so hard for me personally. I held on to producing in the US as long as I could, and I feel I’ve
done everything I’ve been asked to do since, including moving production out of China six years
ago. Now, even the staggeringly high tariffs outside China may force my business to close.
This just isn’t the American Dream I believed in and have tried so hard to achieve. The rules keep
changing, and we just can’t keep up.

I respectfully urge Congress to reconsider these policies that cripple small outdoor businesses like
mine, recognizing the unintended damage they're causing. Thank you sincerely for your time,
consideration, and thoughtful understanding.




Trent Bush
ARTILECT




       ARTILECT Studio • 1909 Broadway #100 Boulder CO 80302 • TrentBush@ARTILECTperformance.com


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